


Welcome to Cascade

by franscats



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Thursday Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-15
Updated: 2015-03-15
Packaged: 2018-03-18 01:09:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3550448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/franscats/pseuds/franscats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the dissertation fiasco, Blair runs away.  Six months later he returns to visit Cascade.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome to Cascade

**Author's Note:**

> This was done for the Sentinel Thursday Challenge #358 - Cascade. It includes spoilers for The Switchman and The Sentinel by Blair Sandburg.
> 
> BJ and the Bear was a show about a trucker. It aired between 1978-1981.

“Welcome to Cascade,” the tour bus operator intoned with the false perkiness that identified her as more than capable of her craft. Blair Sandburg tuned out the rest of the tour information as he stared out the window of the semi full bus watching the scenery go by, his gut wrenching at the familiar sights. He had been gone six month. Six agonizingly, long months. He had upped and left right after the dissertation disaster leaving Cascade, Rainier, the offer of a badge, and most painfully, Jim. 

He almost chocked as he considered the last and most important thing he had left behind, but he was sure Jim didn’t need him, didn’t want him, probably couldn’t stand the sight of him. And Blair was too much of a coward to stare into the eyes of the man he had secretly fallen in love with and see disgust or even worse hatred, so he had called Jim from the bus terminal, leaving a goodbye message on the machine and had taken off.

He had mailed some notes to Jim and Simon from here and there as he traveled up and down the west coast. He didn’t know if Jim would even care to open them after the way he had deserted the sentinel but he imagined Jim reading and smiling at the completely fabricated descriptions of his misadventures. He had started off hitching, calling himself BJ, and some of the older truckers who gave him a ride – and sometimes let him take over the drive - started referring to him as BJ and the Bear after some series that had aired when he was just a kid. So, he kept on traveling with the truckers, earning cash here and there, but never leaving the west coast, something kept him there, a need to be at least near Jim if not with him.

After six months, something inside him compelled him to at least see Cascade again and Blair had picked up the tour bus out of Seattle figuring he could just travel through but as he looked up at the tower where he and Jim had solved their first case together as sentinel and guide, tracking Veronica Saris, he knew he had made a mistake coming here. It was still too painful. Deciding he didn’t need to go up to the top of the tower, he headed back down to the bus. He had already been to the bay, as close as he dared get to the loft, and wanted nothing more than to get away. He told Ms. Perky Tour Guide he had a fear of heights and would wait down at the tour bus and headed out, not looking around, his eyes blinking closed to keep from crying. Why had he ever thought to come back?

Not looking where he was going, he crashed into a tall man and looked up to mumble an apology but froze, caught like a deer in the headlights, as he stared at Detective Rafe.

“Blair?” Rafe asked, looking down at the young man, a hand on Blair’s arm to steady him as Blair swayed momentarily. “Are you back? Where have you been?” Blair could hear the concern in the detective’s voice and took a deep breath before plastering on a smile.

“No, just passing through. Can’t stay. How’s Jim, Simon, everyone in Major Crimes, say hello for me.” Blair’s voice sped up but shook with emotion as he turned pulling free, not waiting for an answer but practically running in panic for the bus.

“Blair,” he heard Rafe call after him as he disappeared in the crowd of sightseers and workers before boarding the bus, almost hyperventilating and threw himself in his seat, scrunching down out of sight, his heart racing. 

Blair didn’t calm down until the others had boarded the bus and they had set off. Sitting up he stared out the window as they approached the bridge that Saris had blown up and the tour guide explained the history of the repair. He tuned the tour and passengers out as he realized he was again leaving Cascade, leaving home. And then the bus stopped, a police car with flashing lights holding it up as a man boarded. He heard someone whisper, “They’re taking someone off the bus,” and then looked up to see Jim standing over the seat.

“Mr. Sandburg,” Jim’s voice said in a completely neutral tone. “Please follow me.” Blair just continued to look up, staring at the vision of his sentinel, lost in the vision, as all eyes on the bus were on him, and then he watched Jim lean down to whisper softly. “Chief, get off the bus or I’ll handcuff you and carry you off.” Jim’s hand latched onto Blair’s arm pulling him up and grabbing the old battered knapsack on the seat beside him.

Blair followed mechanically and once off the bus watched it pull away before a hand steered him to Jim’s truck. In shock, he didn’t say anything, didn’t ask anything, didn’t look at Jim as the sentinel drove through Cascade, stopping and parking near the loft. Still without a word he lifted his knapsack in almost numb fingers and followed the detective upstairs. 

Once in the door, he watched as Jim took off his coat and his holster, just like he’d done a thousand other times, before turning. Finally, rallying his courage, Blair walked into the middle of the living room and waited. He was sure Jim was going to rant at him for betraying him and leaving and he supposed he owed Jim the chance to do just that. He watched as Jim moved toward him. He trembled though he didn’t know why. He wasn’t really afraid. Jim might rant but would never really hurt him so he stood his ground as Jim came closer, invading his personal space. And then Jim’s arms went around him, crushing him to the sentinel’s chest and Blair heard a sob as Jim buried his head in Blair’s hair.

“Jim?” Blair questioned softly, feeling Jim shake, and then Blair’s carefully controlled emotions broke, and Blair’s tears started to fall as his hands circled Jim’s waist, the guide sobbing for everything he had lost, but especially for losing Jim.

“Blair where have you been?” the sentinel asked in an emotionally charged whisper, his voice cracking with the effort at control as he held Blair tighter. “I’ve been looking for you for six months?”

“I knew you wouldn’t want me. Not after…” Blair couldn’t finish as he sobbed harder soaking Jim’s shirt.

“Don’t want you,” Jim answered in disbelief, running a hand up and down Blair’s back. “Don’t you know I love you?” Blair didn’t answer, couldn’t answer, just leaned against the detective as Jim rocked him gently. “Welcome home Chief,” Jim finished kissing the top of the curly head. “And I’m telling you now, you’re not leaving again.”

Blair nodded tears still falling. In his sentinel’s arms, he was where he needed to be. There was still a lot to be settled and the road ahead would be rocky but he now knew Jim wanted him and like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz he knew there was no place like home. He’d find a way to make everything work out. “Welcome to Cascade,” he whispered. “Welcome home.”


End file.
